Wealthy Australians go cold on conservatism

Tony Abbott has held his affluent Sydney seat for 25 years. Not for much longer, reports Bernard Lagan

The former Olympic skier Zali Steggall, centre, is challenging Tony Abbott in the constituency he has held for a quarter of a century

REUTERS

Tuesday May 14 2019, 5.00pm, The Times

Sydney’s northern coastline where the wealthiest in Australia live has always been a dependably conservative heartland.

Old money in gilded suburbs, such as Mosman and Balmoral, has helped ensure that only conservative men from the governing Liberal Party or its predecessors have represented the area in the national parliament.

Tony Abbott, the Oxford-educated, one-time boxer, seminarian, prime minister and hard man of Australia’s conservatives has held the Warringah constituency (the Aboriginal word for wave) for a quarter of a century.

But on Saturday, when Australia’s 16.4 million voters will head to the ballot box, he is poised to lose it.

His main challenger is a woman with no political experience who has campaigned on the need to combat climate change, a phenomenon Mr Abbott famously